WEST VIRGINIA CODE

Subject to the provisions of this chapter and the rules of the
state board, each county board may:

(a) Control and manage all of the schools and school interests
for all school activities and upon all school property owned or
leased by the county, including:

(1) Requiring schools to keep records regarding funds
connected with the school or school interests, including all
receipts and disbursements of all funds collected or received by:

(A) Any principal, teacher, student or other person in
connection with the schools and school interests;

(B) Any program, activity or other endeavor of any nature
operated or conducted by or in the name of the school; and

(C) Any organization or body directly connected with the
school;

(2) Allowing schools to expend funds for student, parent,
teacher and community recognition programs. A school may use only
funds it generates through a fund-raising or donation-soliciting
activity. Prior to commencing the activity, the school shall:

(A) Publicize the activity as intended for this purpose; and

(B) Designate for this purpose the funds generated;

(3) Auditing the records and conserving the funds, including
securing surety bonds by expending board moneys. The funds
described in this subsection are quasipublic funds, which means the
moneys were received for the benefit of the school system as a
result of curricular or noncurricular activities;

(b) Establish:

(1) Schools, from preschool through high school;

(2) Vocational schools; and

(3) Schools and programs for post-high school instruction,
subject to approval of the state board;

(c) Close any school:

(1) Which is unnecessary and assign the students to other
schools. The closing shall occur pursuant to official action of
the county board. Except in emergency situations when the timing
and manner of notification are subject to approval by the state
superintendent, the county board shall notify the affected teachers
and service personnel of the county board action not later than the
first Monday in April. The board shall provide notice in the same
manner as set forth in section four of this article; or

(2) Pursuant to the provisions of subsection (e) of this
section;

(d) Consolidate schools;

(e) Close any elementary school whose average daily attendance
falls below twenty students for two consecutive months. The county
board may assign the students to other schools in the district or
to schools in adjoining districts. If the teachers in the closed
school are not transferred or reassigned to other schools, they
shall receive one month's salary;

(f) Provide transportation according to rules established by
the county board, as follows:

(1) To provide at public expense adequate means of
transportation:

(A) For all children of school age who live more than two miles distance from school by the nearest available road;

(B) For school children participating in county board-approved
curricular and extracurricular activities;

(C) Across county lines for students transferred from one
district to another by mutual agreement of both county boards. The
agreement shall be recorded in the meeting minutes of each
participating county board and is subject to the provisions of
subsection (h) of this section; and

(D) Within available revenues, for students within two miles
distance of the school; and

(2) To provide transportation for participants in projects
operated, financed, sponsored or approved by the Bureau of Senior
Services. This transportation shall be provided at no cost to the
county board. All costs and expenses incident in any way to this
transportation shall be borne by the bureau or the local or county
affiliate of the bureau;

(3) Any school bus owned by the county board may be operated
only by a bus operator regularly employed by the county board,
except as provided in subsection (g) of this section;

(4) Pursuant to rules established by the state board, the
county board may provide for professional employees to be certified
to drive county board-owned vehicles that have a seating capacity
of fewer than ten passengers. These employees may use the vehicles
to transport students for school-sponsored activities, but may not
use the vehicles to transport students between school and home.
Not more than one of these vehicles may be used for any
school-sponsored activity;

(5) Students may not be transported to a school-sponsored
activity in any county-owned or leased vehicle that does not meet
school bus or public transit ratings. This section does not
prohibit a parent from transporting ten or fewer students in a
privately-owned vehicle;

(6) Students may be transported to a school-sponsored activity
in a vehicle that has a seating capacity of sixteen or more
passengers which is not owned and operated by the county board only
as follows:

(A) The state board shall promulgate a rule to establish
requirements for:

(i) Automobile insurance coverage;

(ii) Vehicle safety specifications;

(iii) School bus or public transit ratings; and

(iv) Driver training, certification and criminal history
record check; and

(B) The vehicle owner shall provide to the county board proof
that the vehicle and driver satisfy the requirements of the state
board rule; and

(7) Buses shall be used for extracurricular activities as
provided in this section only when the insurance coverage required
by this section is in effect;

(g) Lease school buses pursuant to rules established by the
county board.

(1) Leased buses may be operated only by bus operators
regularly employed by the county board, except that these buses may
be operated by bus operators regularly employed by another county board in this state if bus operators from the owning county are
unavailable.

(2) The lessee shall bear all costs and expenses incurred by,
or incidental to the use of, the bus.

(3) The county board may lease buses to:

(A) Public and private nonprofit organizations and private
corporations to transport school-age children for camps or
educational activities;

(B) Any college, university or officially recognized campus
organization for transporting students, faculty and staff to and
from the college or university. Only college and university
students, faculty and staff may be transported pursuant to this
paragraph. The lease shall include provisions for:

(i) Compensation for bus operators;

(ii) Consideration for insurance coverage, repairs and other
costs of service; and

(iii) Any rules concerning student behavior;

(C) Public and private nonprofit organizations, including
education employee organizations, for transportation associated
with fairs, festivals and other educational and cultural events.
The county board may charge fees in addition to those charges
otherwise required by this subsection;

(h) To provide at public expense for insurance coverage
against negligence of the drivers of school buses, trucks or other
vehicles operated by the county board. Any contractual agreement
for transportation of students shall require the vehicle owner to
maintain insurance coverage against negligence in an amount specified by the county board;

(i) Provide for the full cost or any portion thereof for group
plan insurance benefits not provided or available under the West
Virginia Public Employees Insurance Act. Any of these benefits
shall be provided:

(1) Solely from county board funds; and

(2) For all regular full-time employees of the county board;

(j) Employ teacher aides; to provide in-service training for
the aides pursuant to rules established by the state board; and,
prior to assignment, to provide a four-clock-hour program of
training for a service person assigned duties as a teacher aide in
an exceptional children program. The four-clock-hour program shall
consist of training in areas specifically related to the education
of exceptional children;

(k) Establish and operate a self-supporting dormitory for:

(1) Students attending a high school or participating in a
post high school program; and

(2) Persons employed to teach in the high school or post high
school program;

(l) At the county board's discretion, employ, contract with or
otherwise engage legal counsel in lieu of using the services of the
prosecuting attorney to advise, attend to, bring, prosecute or
defend, as the case may be, any matters, actions, suits and
proceedings in which the county board is interested;

(m) Provide appropriate uniforms for school service personnel;

(n) Provide at public expense for payment of traveling
expenses incurred by any person invited to appear to be interviewed concerning possible employment by the county board, subject to
rules established by the county board;

(o) Allow designated employees to use publicly provided
carriage to travel from their residences to their workplace and
return. The use:

(1) Is subject to the supervision of the county board; and

(2) Shall be directly connected with, required by and
essential to the performance of the employee's duties and
responsibilities;

(p) Provide at public expense adequate public liability
insurance, including professional liability insurance, for county
board employees;

(q) Enter into cooperative agreements with other county boards
to provide improvements to the instructional needs of each
district. The cooperative agreements may be used to employ
specialists in a field of academic study or for support functions
or services for the field. The agreements are subject to approval
by the state board;

(r) Provide information about vocational and higher education
opportunities to exceptional students. The county board shall
provide in writing to the students and their parents or guardians
information relating to programs of vocational education and to
programs available at state institutions of higher education. The
information may include sources of available funding, including
grants, mentorships and loans for students who wish to attend
classes at institutions of higher education;

(s) Enter into agreements with other county boards for the transfer and receipt of any funds determined to be fair when
students are permitted or required to attend school in a district
other than the district of their residence. These agreements are
subject to the approval of the state board; and

(t) Enter into job-sharing arrangements, as defined in section
one, article one, chapter eighteen-a of this code, with its
employees, subject to the following provisions:

(1) A job-sharing arrangement shall meet all the requirements
relating to posting, qualifications and seniority, as provided in
article four, chapter eighteen-a of this code;

(2) Notwithstanding any contrary provision of this code or
legislative rule and specifically the provisions of article
sixteen, chapter five of this code, a county board that enters into
a job-sharing arrangement:

(A) Shall provide insurance coverage to the one employee
mutually agreed upon by the employees participating in that
arrangement; and

(B) May not provide insurance benefits of any type to more
than one of the job-sharing employees, including any group plan
available under the State Public Employees Insurance Act;

(3) Each job-sharing agreement shall be in writing on a form
prescribed and furnished by the county board. The agreement shall
designate specifically one employee only who is entitled to the
insurance coverage. Any employee who is not designated is not
eligible for state public employees insurance coverage regardless
of the number of hours he or she works;

(4) All employees involved in the job-sharing agreement shall meet the requirements of subdivision (3), section two, article
sixteen, chapter five of this code; and

(5) When entering into a job-sharing agreement, the county
board and the participating employees shall consider issues such as
retirement benefits, termination of the job-sharing agreement and
any other issue the parties consider appropriate. Any provision in
the agreement relating to retirement benefits may not cause any
cost to be incurred by the retirement system that is more than the
cost that would be incurred if a single employee were filling the
position; and

(u) Under rules it establishes for each child, expend an
amount not to exceed the proportion of all school funds of the
district that each child would be entitled to receive if all the
funds were distributed equally among all the children of school age
in the district upon a per capita basis.

Note: WV Code updated with legislation passed through the 2016 Regular Session
The West Virginia Code Online is an unofficial copy of the annotated WV Code, provided as a convenience. It has NOT been edited for publication, and is not in any way official or authoritative.